Episode 217: Umpires, Catchers, and Home Field Advantage/Forming a Wall/The Anti-DH Movement/Lengthening Games
Date June 5, 2013 Summary Ben and Sam answer listener emails about umpires, catchers, and home field advantage, a wall in front of home plate, game length, and the anti-DH movement. Topics * Robot umpires and home field advantage * How many outs in the average baseball game? * Infield wall * Anti-DH movement Intro Soccer 'The Wall' Instructional YouTube sound clip Banter Ben & Sam only received one angry email about their discussion of Yasiel Puig in Episode 216. Email Questions * Aaron: "You asked recently (Episode 205) would a move by going to robot umpires affect batters or pitchers more because of the lack of skill of pitch framing. I would argue that robot umpires would negatively affect the home team by decreasing their home field advantage...skips ahead...It becomes even more evident there is a bias at different points in the game, they use the leverage index to examine called balls/strikes. In non-crucial situations the home and away teams get the same strike/ball calls but as the game situation becomes more crucial the home team receives far fewer called strikes and more called balls than the away team. The strike shrinks for the home team and expands for the visitors and the higher the importance the game situation the more that is evident." * Kyle: "How many outs does the average baseball gave have? The simplest answer is probably 51 or 54 but I would appreciate an answer with at least once decimal. I think the answer depends on the run environment, as fewer runs per game would increase the likelihood that the ninth inning would end with both teams have scored the same number of runs, thus increasing the average outs for extra inning games." * Matt: "I've been What if MLB teams packed 5-6 players as close as possible to the batter, forming a kind wall that you often see in soccer free kicks? The goal of the wall would be to knock down hits as they left the hitter's bat. The wall would make pitch recognition very difficult, especially if the wall is hopping up and down and you have a pitcher like Jered Weaver throwing from an extreme angle. The pitcher would have to adjust to throw through a narrow gap in the wall. Is there a rule that prevents fielders from wearing special equipment? Olerud wore a helmet on the field, so why not full catcher's gear for wall members? Do fly balls leave the bat at such an angle that the wall would have no hop in blocking them?" * Timothy: "In a May 22nd article Russell Carleton writes that the DH is the most highly paid position. Hasn't Effectively Wild research already uncovered that there are no more than 3 players in the AL who play exclusively DH? My point is that the DH isn't the highest paid position because there are not enough people playing the position to adequately judge. I feel like there are no mainstream voices in baseball who are vehemently opposed to what the DH represents. On the other hand there are a multitude of people who like the DH or feel a general apathy towards the DH in the NL. My goal is to end the DH." Notes * Home field advantage does not increase in the playoffs. * In 2013 there are 53.64 outs per game on average. In 1968 there were on average 54.25 outs per game. * Sam, on 'The Wall' question: "When Ben and I read this we did some soul searching because we realized that this is the podcast we're doing." * Sam wonders if a player could stand between the batter and pitcher, jumping out of the way right before a pitch is thrown. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 217: Umpires, Catchers, and Home Field Advantage/Forming a Wall/The Anti-DH Movement/Lengthening Games * Scorecasting by Tobias Moskowitz * Scorecasting Review by Phil Birnbaum Category:Email Episodes Category:Episodes